A Derbyshire police officer ran towards a terrorist atrocity that was unfolding in London and helped a group of 50 French students who had witnessed the horrific attack.

Detective Inspector Karl Mortimer was last night commended by Derbyshire police held at an awards ceremony in Pride Park for his heroic actions in helping the students including two who were in a state of shock and getting them to safety.

Along with a colleague, DI Mortimer spent more than 10 hours comforting the group. Three of their party had been victims of the attack.

The terrorist struck on March 22 and murdered five people and injured 50 when he drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before he stabbed a police officer, PC Keith Palmer. Khalid Masood was subsequently shot outside the Houses of Parliament.

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During the chaos DI Mortimer ran towards the chaotic scenes with his colleague Detective Inspector Simon Dewfall from Somerset and Avon Constabulary. The pair of them had been seconded to work for the Metropolitan Police in counter terrorism and had finished a meeting at New Scotland Yard when the incident happened.

Police and paramedics at the scene of the attack on Westminster Bridge (Image: Press Association)

DI Mortimer said: "We were not far away when we were getting information about the attack and were reading reports on social media. We straight away decided to go to Westminster Bridge. We went there because of what the incident was and because we thought our experience would be useful.

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"As we got there we were opposite the London Eye and came across two teenagers who were on the ground who appeared to be injured and they were surrounded by a group of people. We were in plain clothes so showed our identities and said we were police officers and were there to help.

"The two people on the floor were in an absolute state of shock and had collapsed on the pavement. They had been on the bridge, witnessed what happened and realised three of their colleagues had been hit by the car on the bridge.

"We gave first-aid to the two that were in shock. They were in a bad way and we helped them as much as we could. There were two teachers and all the students there as well that we looked after.

"It was absolute chaos. The attack had only happened minutes before and there were police and paramedics everywhere. They had no idea what had happened to the three that had been hit, whether they were dead or alive.

"Our first reaction was to get these people safe. They needed our help. We're police officers and that's what we do. We're there to help people when we can and I'm sure other colleagues would have done the same thing that day.

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"If we had not come across this group then we would have gone towards the bridge and helped anybody who needed us there."

DI Mortimer then asked people working on a boat bar that was on the River Thames if the group could stay on there for safety and for them to recover from shock. They did and the officers got the group to a triage centre near where the incident happened and they stayed with them until the early hours of the morning.

The two victims who had suffered badly were cared for by paramedics and then returned to the rest of the group and the officers later took them to a hotel. Once there, the officers called on colleagues for assistance, as well as a French speaking officer to act as translator and informed staff from the French embassy.

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Derbyshire police assistant chief constable Bill McWilliam said: "A police officer will tell you the four things you need most to do this job are courage, compassion, the ability to communicate and a large helping of common sense. Karl showed every one of the four C's. He and his colleagues acted in the finest tradition of British policing. Karl, you did us proud, thank you."